During the time Kennedy was in hospital police were looking for the shooter. Witnesses said the shots came from the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository. Later the police found a bolt-action rifle and shell casings near an open window on the sixth floor. This is where Oswald worked. Supposedly after the shooting he left the building and went to his house about one mile away form the scene of the crime. There he got his .38 revolver and started walking towards the Dallas theatre. On his way J.D Tippet, a Dallas police officer, interrogated Oswald. According to the FBI, afraid of what was in the future, Oswald shot Tippet. Approximately a half-hour later he was arrested at the theatre.
Oswald was taken into custody and questioned by the FBI for two days. He denied both charges of murder. On November 24th Oswald was being transferred to a county jail. In front of live television cameras Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, shot him. Ruby claimed he did it to save Oswald’s wife from going through the pain of testifying in court. Lee Harvey Oswald died 1:07 PM that day.
The Warren Commission
Now that that the president and accused assassin were dead, the obvious thing to do was to find out exactly what happened in Dallas. Using the evidence president Lyndon Johnson appointed a group of top government officials to investigate the assassination. This group, headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, was named the Warren Commission.Many witnesses said they heard shots from the grassy knoll next to the Texas schoolbook depository. The key to the entire investigation was the 8mm film taken by Abraham Zapruder. He filmed the entire assassination as Kennedy’s motorcade drove off Main St. and onto Houston St. It then slowed down to 6 miles per hour to make the sharp hairpin turn onto Elm St. Half way down Elm St., the fatal shots captured on film, were fired. The time frame of the shooting, 5.6 seconds, meant that Lee Harvey Oswald would have to have fired 3 shots out a cheap Italian made bolt-action rifle with precision accuracy.
The commission questioned many witnesses who were in Dealey Plaza that day. They reviewed Oswald’s life history and his defection to Russia. After they put together all their evidence their conclusion, that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin, was released to the public. Despite their efforts most of the American public was not convinced, and with good reason.
Due to so many unanswered questions, many people object to the findings of the Warren Commission. Many American citizens do not believe Oswald to be the lone assassin. There are many theories of a conspiracy. Oswald’s death points to a conspiracy. Why would someone be shot for no apparent reason? Oswald’s death could have been because someone did not want him to reveal any information on Kennedy’s death. Jack ruby said that he killed Oswald to prevent Oswald’s wife from the pain of having to testify against her husband’s death. Conspiracists say he killed Oswald so he could not give away any names of people who were involved in the assassination.
Some people think the Central Intelligence Agency planned the assassination because Kennedy was planning to shut down all operations of the CIA. They were doing secret operations in foreign countries, which was against Kennedy’s policy. He was planning to shut them down. Conspiracists believe that the CIA would have the ability to cover up their involvement in a conspiracy.
Others believe the CIA was in co-operation with the Mafia. In New Orleans there were many Mob and CIA connections. Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a group of ex-CIA agents and Cubans. They were running guns, illegally, to training camps in southern parts of Louisiana. Among these people were David Ferry, Guy Banister, and Clay Shaw. These people were said to have had connections to Oswald.
Also if it was only 1 gunman, the best target would be to fire from the Schoolbook Depository onto Houston St. However he was shot on Elm St. This suggests that someone else was needed to shoot him on Elm Street.
Fresh footprints were found near the grassy knoll where another shooter might have been because some eyewitnesses also say they have heard shots being fired from behind the fence on the grassy knoll area, some even claim they have photos of one of the shooters there.
Having reviewed the evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald purchased the rifle used in the assassination, Oswald's palm print was on the rifle in a position which shows that he had handled it while it was disassembled, fibres found on the rifle most probably came from the shirt Oswald was wearing on the day of the assassination, a photograph taken in the yard of Oswald's apartment showed him holding this rifle, and the rifle was kept among Oswald's possessions from the time of its purchase until the day of the assassination, the Commission concluded that the rifle used to assassinate President Kennedy and wound Governor Connally was owned and possessed by Lee Harvey Oswald.
The preponderance of the evidence supports the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald told the curtain rod story to Frazier to explain both the return to Irving on a Thursday and the obvious bulk of the package which he intended to bring to work the next day; took paper and tape from the wrapping bench of the Depository and fashioned a bag large enough to carry the disassembled rifle; removed the rifle from the blanket in the Paines' garage on Thursday evening; carried the rifle into the Depository Building, concealed in the bag; and, left the bag alongside the window from which the shots were fired.
The foregoing evidence establishes that two eyewitnesses who heard the shots and saw the shooting of Dallas Police Patrolman J. D. Tippit and seven eyewitnesses who saw the flight of the gunman with revolver in hand positively identified Lee Harvey Oswald as the man they saw fire the shots or flee from the scene, the cartridge cases found near the scene of the shooting were fired from the revolver in the possession of Oswald at the time of his arrest, to the exclusion of all other weapons, the revolver in Oswald's possession at the time of his arrest was purchased by and belonged to Oswald, and Oswald's jacket was found along the path of flight taken by the gunman as he fled from the scene of the killing. On the basis of this evidence the Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Dallas Police Patrolman J. D. Tippit.
The Commission has found that Lee Harvey Oswald owned and possessed the rifle used to kill President Kennedy and wound Governor Connally, brought this rifle into the Depository Building on the morning of the assassination, was present, at the time of the assassination, at the window from which the shots were fired killed Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit in an apparent attempt to escape, resisted arrest by drawing a fully loaded pistol and attempting to shoot. Another police officer lied to the police after his arrest concerning important substantive matters, attempted, in April 1963, to kill Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker, and possessed the capability with a rifle, which would have enabled him to commit the assassination. On the basis of these findings the Commission has concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin of President Kennedy.
I think that Oswald could not have been familiar with the motorcade route before he came to work on November 22, that he may well have carried curtain rods rather than a rifle in a brown paper package he brought with him to work that day. There may have been other people in the building who could have fired the rifle. I don’t think that Oswald could have fired the shots in the time available to him, because he only had a few seconds to make 6 shots and I don’t think he was a good enough marksman to have scored the hits with the rifle.
I would imagine that there were other people in the lunchroom of the Depository Building when he was confronted by Patrolman M. L. Baker that could have done it aswell. I don’t think there are any eyewitnesses who could identify Oswald as having been in the window because it was 6th floor and any one could have looked like anyone else. For all you know the eyewitnesses might have been fake. The CIA might have paid them for what they say or something like that. It could be any other theory because I think they are all backed up well.
By Diana Rough
9L1
